Epiphone PR-200BE Repair

[Pick'n]

Hello to everybody from Hill Country, Republic of Texas.

I have a Epiphone PR-200BE that I purchased from a friend while working in Saudi Arabia in the late 90's. It was lost for a year (in transit from there) and then was located and returned, so she has a lot of sentimental value to me.

I had it for years before giving it as a gift to my son-in-law. That marriage didn't work out and got it back yesterday. It appears that he "attempted" to fix and restring it. Now I find that the bridge nut was broken (one end). The original nut has something like 4 holes in the bottom that match with 4 studs on the neck. There is another nut in the case that only has 2 holes in it. My questions are:

 

#1 - Can I just remove the small studs on the neck and glue the new nut in place?

 

#2 - The action always seemed to be to tall for my fingers (seemed like I had to push the strings down a mile just to make contact). Should I look at taking it to a guitar store in San Antonio and have them RE-set up the whole guitar? I'm not sure if it was EVER really setup right, even though my friend enjoyed playing it over there by the community pool and at some gigs.

 

Anyway, sorry for the VERY long posting but, as you can see, this is my first post on this forum. I'm looking forward to starting to learn the instrument, even though I've read some not-so=flattering reviews of this particular Epiphone. Anybody that wishes to post their opinion of it would be most helpful. Not sure if I want to put money into it (it's paid off) or save my money and get a better one to learn on.

Thank you again for your help. Anybody near San Antonio that could help in person would be nice and most certainly appreciated

Dennie